ALLEN PARK — Louis Delmas and Kevin Ogletree have been friends for eight years — since they matched up against each other in college — Delmas at Western Michigan and Ogletree at Virginia.

So when Ogletree, a wide receiver, was signed by the Detroit Lions a few weeks ago, Delmas offered to let him stay at his place.

Ogletree said fine, but he’s not a wild kingdom type of guy.

“I told him I couldn’t stay there with the gator there,’’ Ogletree said. “He had to make some adjustments for the New York City kid.’’

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Delmas’ pet alligator named Mojo scared Ogletree as it would most human beings not named Louis Delmas.

The Lions’ safety, who got the alligator egg from former Lions’ teammate Ernie Sims, had fed it two live rats (“It’s no excitement if it’s dead”) three times a week and watched it grow to 6 feet long.

“Mine wasn’t that aggressive with me, I guess from it knowing my scent,’’ Delmas said. “It never attacked me at all I mean, of course it would snap, but it never tried to attack me. Now everybody else couldn’t come close to the tank. The minute somebody else came downstairs he’d be buzzing at the tank.’’

The time was right for a new home for Mojo. In Miami, Delmas’ hometown, any gator over 6 feet is killed because the population is growing so rapidly.

“So I’m glad my gator is up here,’’ said Delmas who misses Mojo and was thinking about visiting him.

Mojo is temporarily staying at the Critter Shop in Allen Park while he awaits transportation to the Detroit Zoo where a photo of Delmas will be placed near the exhibit.

And Ogletree is staying with Delmas in a gator-free environment.

Ogletree, who was signed after Nate Burleson broke his forearm, has played in three games and has five catches for 75 yards. He had a 43-yard beauty on Sunday in the loss to the Bengals.

“He’s done a nice job since he’s been here. He got up to speed quickly with terminology,’’ coach Jim Schwartz said. “He made a big play for us last week. He was here for a couple days of practice and he had a few catches in the game.

He’s a pro player. He works well in preparation. He understands concepts and things like that. He’s got a wide variety of skills. He’s got good size, good speed and has really good hands. He’s done a nice job for us.”

Ogletree played for the Dallas Cowboys for four seasons and thought the Lions might pick his brain about them this week.

“It hasn’t been that type of deal,’’ Ogletree said. “I always wondered when you go play someone else who’s the snitch, who’s giving away all the stuff? If I was asked I would give in. but I think these guys trust their technique enough, trust our game plan and watch enough film to evaluate and know everything I could tell them.’’

Look for Ogletree’s role to possibly expand. He was targeted twice last Sunday and caught both for 50 yards even though he was just on the field for 13 percent of the offensive snaps. In three games with Detroit he’s been targeted seven times and caught five.

“His targets and catches have been very good for us,’’ offensive coordinator Scott LInehan said. “He’s a veteran and he’s a guy that works very hard to be ready for anything you ask of him and his blood pressure doesn’t change when he goes on the field and that’s nice.”

Apparently it’s only a gator in the basement that make his blood pressure rise.

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